1. Filed of the Invention
The present invention relates to a teleconference system for permitting persons present in a plurality of bases to participate in a conference by connecting the bases via a network.
2. Description of Related Art
In recent years, a teleconference system wherein a plurality of conference bases are connected via a network has been turned into actual utilization. In the teleconference system, display devices are placed in the conference bases, and not only audio signals but also video signals are exchanged among the conference bases so that persons in one base can see how things are going in other bases. In this system, it is possible to share information among persons in all the conference bases by using an application or an interactive board to display text data and graphic data on the display devices in the bases along with the progress of the conference.
Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 2000-242427 discloses a teleconference assisting system that permits a presenter to draw on a screen with a light emission pointer. In this system, when a presenter draws on the screen with the light emission pointer, the position of the light emitted from the light emission pointer on the screen is detected, and the motion of the light is recorded. Then, light is projected on the same position as detected to trace the motion of the light emitted from the light emission point on the screen.
Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 2000-244886 discloses that each user wears a pair of colored body markers and a headset and that the computer model of each user moves in accordance with the motions of the user.
Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 2008-254103 discloses a robot that reproduces a presenter's actions. According to Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 2008-254103, an action of the presenter is analyzed, and from action patterns stored in a device, one that matches best with the action of the presenter is selected. Then, the robot is operated to perform the selected action pattern.
Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 2005-228353 (U.S. Patent Publication No. 2004/0027397A1) discloses that a graphic identifying section identifies a graphic drawn on a touch panel by a user from the locus of a touch panel pointer and that a graphic display section displays the identified graphic on a screen.
Japanese Patent Application No. 2006-164177 discloses an electronic conference system wherein a screen sharing software that permits the participants to obtain electronic data in real time and an application software that permits the participants to enter characters and graphics are concurrently used to conduct a conference.
In the meantime, in a teleconference, a participant may use body language and/or draw graphics in the air by fingers during his/her presentation. However, there are cases where the body language and/or the graphics cannot be delivered to other participants in other conference bases, depending on the size of the video picture. Also, some other participants in the same conference base may forget the graphics drawn in the air by the presenter and/or may have a misunderstanding of the graphics. It is possible to avoid such trouble by using an application software and/or an interactive board, which, however, requires some preparations, such as launching an application beforehand. Without such preparations, it is impossible to cope with a case of necessity, which may turn down the discussion.